Kom Firin

The Ramesside complex

Magnetometry also provides a cost-efficient method for
clarifying the context of the Ramesside temple. The survey data
clearly reveals the presence of a massive enclosure wall (5m
thick), delimiting an area of c.230x200m.

The northern stretch of the wall is pierced by a monumental
gateway, consisting of two towers measuring approximately 18x8m. A test
trench revealed the inner face of one of the towers, associated
with a mass of limestone chippings, some with worked surfaces,
which may hint at an original decorated limestone element in this
gateway.

In the north-west and north-eastern, fortifying bastions of
10x10m are evident at the external corners. Are these bastions
actually the foundations of now lost towers?

The north-eastern corner is the focus of ongoing excavations in
(2005-). While the well-constructed bastion and wall proved to be
contemporary, an unexpected
discovery was of an enigmatic brick mass, measuring at least 6.4 x
7.5m, built against and over the decayed remains of this part of
the enclosure.

Inside the enclosure, a complex series of construction phases
was revealed, with narrow contiguous rooms opening onto a space
(court?) in the Third Intermediate Period. These rooms been built
up against the inner face of the enclosure wall, again after it had
been exposed to erosion and decay for some time. A mass of storage
pottery was encountered in one of these rooms.

The enclosure wall must predate this time. As it
follows the same alignment as the temple, and is built of the same
type of bricks, it undoubtedly dates to the Ramesside era. It seems
likely that this large complex, with a modest temple set within it,
alongside other smaller-scale structures, represents one of the
line of Ramesside installations designed to guard against the
increased threat from the Libyan desert. Such complexes may have
fulfilled the role of ideological or symbolic defenses rather than
pratical military forts.

Texts from the reigns of Merenptah and Ramses III refer to
several installations along the western Delta. Thus far, only one
had been identified archaeologically, at the site of
Zawyet Umm el-Rakham on Egypt's north-western coast. Excavations at
this site, still ongoing, suggest an enclosure wall of similar
size, with a narrow gateway and external corner bastions, and a
small temple within, thus similar in many ways to the structures at
Kom Firin.

The epithets afforded Ramses II upon the doorjamb from the
temple underline its position on Egypt's frontier: 'strong ruler,
strong of arm, powerful of might' and 'one fighting at the head of
his troops'. Kom Firin thus attests to the protection of Egypt’s
western Delta frontier through ideological, and possibly
practical, means.

Images (from top):

Magnetometry survey in
the south-eastern part of Kom Firin (2003-2005). The fortified
enclosure and its northern gateway are clearly visible, with the
temple within. The western and southern stretches of the enclosure
wall have largely been destroyed. Scale in metres.